Wiirachay

[Revised to be more ppt-based.]
[B/E seat photos in one of the replies.]

Executive Summary

While I, personally, was pretty much happy with the service, here's some criticism to DL management, attempting to capture what could be done to improve the it for the sake of all passengers, not just mine. Most of these won't cost too much implement. Note that this criticism goes beyond actions of front-line employees, as they just did fine.

My main concern is that DL has quite some competition in the Asian market, such as CX and UA. And their brands have been in existence much longer, as DL is the "new kid on the block." Is DL ready to deal with the competition?

Flight: DL27 - DTW-HKG
Date: 12/18/2010
Plane: 7108

Asian market: IF DL is attempting to penetrate the Asian market, they need to do a better job.
* The food offerings were so Western-oriented. The Asian dish needs to be rice-based, not lo mein-based. What about dim sum as appetizers or as mid-flight snacks? [I loved Michelle's signature salmon dish and the appetizer, BTW, that I'd like to copy the signature dish for my own meals at home. But, this isn't about me - it's about the Asian market.]
* NW did a great job handling the Japanese passengers with a dedicated Japanese magazine and meal service. It gave an ambiance that NW catered to both the US and Japanese markets equally, whereas the Chinese passengers on the DL flight were an afterthought. [I'm neither. So this doesn't affect me personally. But those Chinese passengers affect DL's bottom line and market share.] DL should do something similar for the Chinese passengers, esp. since they're serving PVG, HKG, and PEK. (I know there could be some implementation issues as there are different dialects.)

Amenities:
* There should be disposable "dixie" cups in the bathroom to use when brushing teeth, regardless of class of service. I think this should be obvious. For B/E passengers, it's pretty weird without the cups, as they're provided amenity kits with toothbrush and toothpaste.
* The wet "towels" in the bathroom are kind of weird. Are they supposed to be thrown away after use? On my flight, there were used towels sitting in the sink area. If the towels should be thrown away, then there should be a note. If not, then there should be a small bag where to place the used towels. After a few hours, those towels dry up after a few hours, so I had to put water on them. I suggest this concept be revisited. It was very weird. (On my last ATL-JNB flight, there wasn't any. But since DL decided to offer this on the HKG flight, it should be done right or not done at all.)

F/A Service:
* F/As should introduce himself/herself to the passengers in the quadrant he/she will be tending to some time prior to meal service. It eliminates the awkwardness esp. for pax seated in row 7, as they're served by F/As in the rear quadrants. (I was aware of this on my ATL-JNB flight so I didn't feel weird; but it would be awkward for other pax unaware.) In addition, the service feels more personal for 5 minutes of extra effort by the crew. CO's been doing this for at least the past 10 years - they do the introductions during taxi.

Lounge Access: On boarding passes printed using OLCI, there should be a note telling the pax that his/she is invited to use the lounge prior to departure, in addition to telling the pax where it's located. For any passenger type, the road warrior or the rich leisure traveler, it would make life easier, as some may not be aware of the feature or some may not know where to go to find the lounge. CX does this.

Last two items are particular to me

Seat: It would be great to have a note by the USB and headphone jacks mentioning where the electrical outlets are. I had to ask an F/A where it was. Keep in mind that although I flew B/E on the same aircraft last May, I forgot where it was, and it wasn't easy to find the third time around! But then again, this could be just me.

IFE: The moving map feature wasn't working. The plane icon was "stuck" at DTW the entire flight, with the incorrect times being displayed. A similar problem occurred on ATL-JNB DL200 on 5/25/2010. Ship was 7108. Was this a security-related issue or a technical difficulty?